Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

No action will produce a reaction in the case of a person who acts as if in a yajna or a sacrifice – i.e., as a participation in the cosmic purposes and not as an individual actor for the purpose of reaping an ulterior fruit. Expecting a fruit is a special characteristic of selfish action, and there is no expectation of fruit in an unselfish action. It is work for work’s sake, duty for duty’s sake, as they say. The moment there is an intention in the mind to reap a consequence or a fruit tomorrow or the day after or in the future, as the result of karma or action done today, that person is actually thinking in terms of the time process, because the fruit of an action will accrue only after some time. The expectation of the fruit of an action, therefore, is tantamount to involvement in the process of time, and time is equal to death; and such a person is bound by karma. But one who performs actions as a yajna, as a duty, does not expect any fruit. Ulterior motive is totally absent in the case of unselfish action.

We may wonder: if we expect nothing from a work, why should we work at all? These are the stock arguments of modern thinkers, even very well-read people. What should be the prompting behind us to do anything at all if we get nothing out of it? This question arises on account of our total ignorance of the nature of our relation to the world which is, once again, that wrong apprehension of the world as being totally outside us – a field where we can grow a crop and eat the fruit thereof, with God somewhere in Seventh Heaven who will bless us with salvation after death. This is the peculiar, crude, illiterate argument of even the most learned people these days. Hard it is for a person to appreciate that there is an organic, living connection between us, and the world, and God.

An individual must have performed great punya – great merit in the previous birth or in several births – to be able to appreciate this great truth of the identity of ourselves with the atmosphere in which we are stationed. Therefore, unselfish action is itself a fruit thereof. If we become healthy, do we ask what do we get if we become healthy? The health itself is the fruit thereof. Similarly, unselfishness is nothing but a healthy relationship that we maintain with the world and perhaps with God. And what we call selfish action is an unhealthy relationship that we maintain with the world and with God – an alien relationship, as it were. We treat the world and God as foreigners, as if we have no connection with them. If that is the case, they will treat us also as foreigners. This is a tit for tat action that nature does unto us. But we can be free from this predicament of getting kicks from nature and God if our actions are motivated by a consciousness that we are an agent, an instrument, a medium of action of cosmic powers, and that we do not do anything.

Shakespeare wrote all the plays with his pen. We cannot say the pen wrote the plays, though it is true that the pen or pencil actually wrote the plays. Yet we do not say that the pen wrote; we say that Shakespeare wrote. This is the manner in which we have to understand our position in this world. We are like a fountain pen in the hand of God, an instrument in His hand; we are a tool, as it were: nimitta matra.

The brain will not accept these arguments on account of the turbid karmas that are lying latent in the unconscious and subconscious levels. So in the beginning stages, spiritual practice cannot rise to such heights of this kind of comprehension. It has to start with citta shuddhi – the practice of yamas, niyamas, viveka, vairagya, shad-sampat and mumukshutva – qualitites which are mentioned in the Vedanta Sastras. We must be good persons before we become God-persons. We cannot suddenly become godly individuals unless we are good individuals first and foremost. There is very little of goodness in most of us. We are the same brutes when the time comes for it, and this is something that we can know through a little bit of investigation instead of actually landing ourselves in that predicament where we have to behave like that. We need not fall sick in order to know what sickness is. A doctor can understand; a good physician can know what sickness is, how it acts, without actually falling sick.

Hence, it is essential for us to educate ourselves in this art of spiritual living by a graduated ascending process of self-purification before we go into the meditations of the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita. Even in the Vedanta Sastra, when we become students of Vedanta for instance, we do not suddenly go to the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras, and so on because they will look like a jungle and we will not know what is where. Everything is found in a forest, but we will not know what is found in which place. This also applies to the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Therefore, Vedanta Sastra commences with introductory Prakarana Granthas like Vedanta Sara, Vedanta Paribhasha, Laghu Vasudevamanana, and Panchadasi. Then we study the Upanishads. Only after these, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahma Sutras should be studied. We should not suddenly jump into them unless we are already a prepared soul, by the grace of God.

Gatasangasya muktasya jnanavasthita-cetasah, yajnayacharatah karma samagram praviliyate: All actions melt then and there. What is the jnanavasthita-cetas condition? What is actually the gatasangatva; and what is actually the yajna-karma finally? When there is a hailstorm, little balls of ice form; and the moment they fall on the earth, the ice melts and the balls become liquid. Likewise, the fire of knowledge will burn up the solid masses of karma that we have accumulated, provided that our actions are totally unmotivated in terms of the fruit that is to accrue in the future.

Brahmarpanam brahmahavir brahmagnau brahmana hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma-karma-samadhina (4.24). This verse is itself enough for us to meditate on the great God of the cosmos. When we offer a sacrifice, the offering is nothing but a face of the Ultimate Reality itself. The performer, the process of performance, the instrument of action and the result that follows are all various modifications of a single Reality in the same way that the ocean waters – whether they are like foam or bubbles or ripples, whether they are solid or liquid, or whatever be the form – are just modifications of a single mass of water.

Even the offering of the sense organs in terms of objects of sense – this crude activity that we are performing as sense perception – is actually an action of the Cosmic Power. The means or the instruments that we use in this process of perception also come from that Supreme Force only. That is the havis that we offer – the yajna of action. The fire into which we offer the oblation is also only that Supreme Being manifesting as fire; and the aim that we have in our minds, the goal that we want to reach after the performance of this yajna, is also only the Ultimate Reality. The path and the goal coalesce in the highest realm of spiritual experience.

Brahmarpanam brahmahavir brahmagnau brahmana hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma-karma-samadhina. There is a similar verse in the Yoga Vasishtha – tacchintanam tatkathanam anyo’nyam tat prabodhanam, etadeka paratvam ca brahmabhyasamitir budhah (3.22.24) – in which it is told to us that we have to practice brahmabhyasa. The Yoga Vasishtha prescribes three kinds of sadhana – prana nirodha, chitta-vritti nirodha and brahmabhyasa – which are pranayama, control of the mind, and meditation on the Absolute.

Tacchintanam – day in and day out thinking only that – as a person who has been given a death sentence will always be thinking of the gallows, and the executioner’s noose will be in his mind even before it actually takes place, or a person who is expecting a great promotion will always wait for it to come, anticipating the increased salary, and so on. Just as we constantly keep in our minds the great goals in this world in some form of material possession, in like manner we should brood over this Reality, always thinking That. Tatkathanam: When we speak to people, we should not talk about unnecessary things. We should enlighten ourselves and the other by a discussion on this subject. We should prompt the person to talk only on this subject, and we should also talk only on this subject. This is actually a satsanga that is taking place between two persons or any number of persons. Tacchintanam: always thinking that, and talking and conversing only about that. Anyo’nyam tat prabodhanam: mutually enlightening only on that particular theme. When we meet anybody we should ask, “What have you studied? What is the progress that you have made? I would also like to have the benefit of knowing something.” As students sometimes compare their notes in schools and colleges, we can compare notes and compare experiences even among our colleagues. That is mutual illumination that we engender among ourselves, and that also becomes a kind of meditation.

In a family, in a community where there are many people, we should not talk nonsense. We should always be talking on this great subject which is the great health of the body, of society, and finally liberation itself. Anyo’nyam tat prabodhanam, etadeka paratvam ca: depending on that only for our life and death. This is our life and this is also our death, and we cannot have any other thought in our minds. Etadeka paratvam ca brahmabhyasamitir budhah: This is called the practice of Brahman.

There is a little book by Brother Lawrence called Practice of the Presence of God. You can all read that book; it is very interesting. His experience was that everywhere – in the shoes, in the kitchen and dishes, in the broomstick – everywhere is God only. Similarly, there is another verse: tatbudhayas tadatmanas tannishthas tatparayanah, gachhanty apunaravrittim jnana nirdhuta kalmashah (5.17). We will discuss this verse later on.

Today we drew certain conclusions about the fact of God’s incarnation perpetually taking place in this world, and our wrong apprehension of our relation between ourselves and the world and God, which creates binding karma, and the necessity to perform unselfish action in the form of yajna. What yajna is has been described. Yajna is actually brahmabhyasa – total dependence on God. This is, finally, unselfish action.